New smartphone hazard: Two women goes temporary blind while checking phone in dark

London: London Two UK women complained of temporarily vision loss for up to 15 minutes in one eye for constantly checking their bright cellphone screen in a dark room.

A 22-year-old woman had trouble seeing with her right eye at night while in bed. This happened multiple times a week for a year. However, her vision was fine in her left eye, and in both eyes the following day.

In another case, a 40-year-old woman reported not being able to see with one eye when she woke up before sunrise. The vision problem lasted about 15 minutes, and happened on and off for six months, doctors said.

They both were subjected to variety of medical exams, MRI scans and heart tests before seeing an eye specialist who was able to diagnose them in minutes. “I simply asked them, ‘What exactly were you doing when this happened?’” says Dr.Gordon Plant of Moorfield’s Eye Hospital in London.

He explained that both women typically looked at their smartphones with only one eye while resting on their side in bed in the dark their other eye was covered by the pillow.

The doctors said. In this situation, the eye blocked by the pillow becomes adapted to the dark, while the other eye looking at the smartphone is adapted to the light.

When the smartphone is turned off, the light-adapted eye is perceived to be “blind,” until it also adjusts to the dark.

“As they can see well with the dark-adapted eye, it seems to them that they have lost vision in the eye which a moment ago was viewing the smartphone normally,” researchers wrote in a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers said when they conducted an experiment, the patients were asked to look at their phone with both eyes, and also with each eye individually.

The patients said they did not experience symptoms when looking at their phone with both eyes, and if they looked at their phone with one eye, the symptoms were always in the eye that had been viewing the smartphone, the researchers said.